Best wishes for 2023 from the CVHEC staff: Tom Burke, Saundra McGlothlin, Ángel Ramírez, Dr. Benjamín Durán, Pricila Villanueva,
Stan Carrisoza, John Spevak and Tom Uribes. (Not pictured: Elaine Cash and Marcus Johnson).
DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE
A Season to Celebrate our Triumphs
Holiday Greetings to All,
We, the team at the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday season as we come to the end of a historic fall semester at all our partner institutions and prepare to usher in a new year.
The 2021-22 academic year saw our Central Valley colleges and universities emerge from the post-pandemic blues and welcome our students and staff back to our campuses. It was a long two years. Congratulations to each and every one of you who dedicate your professional career to relentlessly serving our students regardless of the challenges we face. This is truly a season to celebrate our triumphs!
In this final issue of 2022 – our Silver Edition – you will see highlights of the good work that took place in the region, in spite of the constraints imposed by COVID. Enjoy reviewing this glimpse back at the last 12 months as well as a recap of the winter CVHEC Board of Directors meeting held earlier this month.
One of the highlights of our board meeting was a collective farewell to friend and colleague Dr. Lori Bennet who is retiring as Clovis Community College president Jan. 3 after a long and successful career serving community college students. Congratulations Dr. Bennett, we wish you a long and well-deserved retirement.
To all, please enjoy the holidays and plan on joining us again in January for our first newsletter of 2023.
The December “What the CV-HEC is Happening” Blog is presented by Tom Uribes, CVHEC’s communications/media coordinator who joined CVHEC in 2020 after serving as a California State University public affairs specialist for two Fresno State offices in a 30-year career from 1988-2017: the University Outreach Services and University Communications offices, where he also served as the University’s public information officer for two decades of that career. Among his current projects is editor of the CVHEC e-newsletter which presents its 25th edition with this issue. His blog looks back at some of the newsletter stories published in 2022.
Celebrating Our 25th Edition with a
Look Back at 2022 CVHEC Stories
With the close of 2022 – and near resumption of post-pandemic “normal life” – we present our now annual review of top stories featured in the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium e-newsletter for this December issue: our 25th edition!
This Silver Edition of the CVHEC e-newsletter crowns a venture that started when I signed on with the Consortium in March, 2020 just as the pandemic broke -- sending me back home after just one day in CVHEC’s office in Fresno to work out of a hastily revived bedroom office.
Under the direction of my new CVHEC boss at the time, Virginia Madrid-Salazar, we published our first issue in June 2020 (A Full-Circle Note: when I started my Fresno State career in the late 80s, I had hired a young freshman journalism major, Virginia Madrid, as one of my first news interns. That young student eventually became the strategies lead for CVHEC and brought me out of retirement to reunite with her). But Virginia left us in August 2021 to play lawyer so Operations Manager Ángel Ramírez assumed her role as my lead. Angel's able and competent guidance and leadership has continued the solid partnership with me started by Virginia for the growth of the CVHEC e-newsletter into this, its 25th edition.
We hope you enjoy this milestone 25th issue -- a compressed journey through the past 12 months of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. Topics include our Dual Enrollment Convening and Legislative and Policy Summit last spring, the historic CVHEC Board of Directors quarterly meetings, the appointments of new campus leaders, the growth of our “What the CV-HEC is Happening” Blog first introduced in 2021 and more.
We strive to tell the CVHEC story: bringing together 30 Central Valley institutions of higher education through its board of directors made up the presidents and chancellors in the nine-county region to increase the Central Valley’s certificate and degree attainment rates. These campus leaders make history every time they meet to deliberate, act and speak as one voice on higher education issues and policies affecting our region -- a rare feat in the academia CEO world ...
Outgoing Community College President Lori Bennett sat in on her final CVHEC Board meeting Dec. 8 and was honored by her colleagues including CVHEC regional coordinator John Spevak, who worked with her on special projects at CCC, and Executive Director Benjamin Duran. Jessie Ryan of the Campaign for College Opportunity presented on AB928 (Berman) and transfer reform. Bottom right: Board Chair Kristin Clark, chancellor of the West Hills Community College District, with West Hills College Lemoore President James Preston, Fresno City College President Robert Pimentel and State Center Community College Chancellor Carole Goldsmith.
CVHEC Board Reviews AB928/Transfer Reform,
Eyes Retreat In 2023 and Bids Farewell to One of Its Own
The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Board of Directors held its final quarterly meeting of the year Dec. 8 highlighted by a discussion of Assembly Bill 928 regarding transfer reform and a farewell to a beloved colleague.
Dr. Lori Bennett, outgoing president of Clovis Community College, was presented a retirement gift during her final meeting sitting on the CVHEC board and representing her institution of higher education.
The hybrid board meeting, only the second in-person session since the pandemic for the presidents and chancellors of CVHEC’s 30 member institutions in the nine-county Central Valley region, was hosted by the California Health Sciences University and board member Florence T. Dunn, CHSU president.
Presenting at the board meeting was Jessie Ryan, executive vice president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, who joined the meeting via Zoom. While discussing AB928 (Berman), she acknowledged the role CVHEC has played in the transfer reform movement over the years, noting that the Central Valley is ahead of many in the state.
The 2021-22 academic year saw our Central Valley colleges and universities emerge from the post-pandemic blues and welcome our students and staff back to our campuses. It was a long two years. Congratulations to each and every one of you who dedicate your professional career to relentlessly serving our students regardless of the challenges we face. This is truly a season to celebrate our triumphs!
This Silver Edition of the CVHEC e-newsletter crowns a venture that started when I signed on with the Consortium in March, 2020 just as the pandemic broke -- sending me back home after just one day in CVHEC’s office in Fresno to work out of a hastily revived bedroom office.
